I think it’s like this - I do really well in broad strokes and arcs. I really have to work at writing scenes full of dialogue. I can do it, and have done some scenes, but I have to run the dialogue over and over in my head as if rehearsing a play. (My undergraduate is in theater.)
Hearsz does great in writing scenes full of dialogue and in the strokes and arcs. Imo, when you write and write, sometimes you get into patterns and need an outsider to throw out ideas to spark the next set of writing.
It’s like writing music. Without shaking things up, each song can start to sound alike. Bring in someone who will then bring in a couple of different instruments, or a new sound style, and then the music writing gets a kick in the pants, and youpretty off and running again.
Each session pretty much begins with Hearsz throwing down on a spreadsheet 5-10 of the 40 scenes we’ll do, for example. If I jump in then, I’ll throw down maybe 5+ scenes, and back and forth we’ll get 40 scene ideas down. (If I delay, such as weeks I’m in trial, 35 scene ideas will be down before I chime in).
Then the scenes get ideas posted for them, location renders suggested, and dialogue ideas placed. I might suggest scenes get reordered and explain why. When we start rehashing imo too many similar scenes (I.e., sex scenes that seem to similar, etc) I’ll push for a number of alternatives to freshen it up.
Once that whole process is set, I fade into the background and Hearsz writes, MDots codes and creates, and I wait except for throwing out tweaking ideas as they come to me over the last weeks before release.
i know from experience how hard it is to keep up the artistic writing process, so I provide a match for ideas and a touchstone for ideas that are chosen and developed. That’s what I do.